The Zaporizhia NPP (ZNPP) reported on its Telegram channel that one of the radiation control posts in Velyka Znamenka had been completely destroyed as a result of an artillery attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. ZNPP said its specialists had performed a number of compensating measures to control the radiation situation in the area of the plant’s location, the press service of the NPP reports. IAEA inspectors at ZNPP had been notified, according to the plant’s press service. Russia’s Federal Medical-Biological Agency confirmed that background radiation in the Energodar region adjacent to the NPP was normal.
The radiation control post is located south-west of the NPP, downstream of the Dnieper River, in the village of Velyka Znamenka some 10-12 kilometres from ZNPP.
ZNPP Plant Director Yuriy Chernichuk noted that, after the shelling, radiation levels did not exceed the natural background values, and local residents were not in any danger. He added that IAEA experts stationed at the plant had been given photographic materials showing the remains of the equipment.
Vladimir Rogov, Chairman of the Commission on Sovereignty Issues of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and co-chairman of the Coordination Council for the Integration of New Regions told MK he believed that Ukraine was preparing a major provocation. “Under the pretext of radiation contamination, for example, the troops of NATO member countries may be brought into the territory controlled by the Kiev regime-allegedly in order to ensure nuclear safety,” he said.
Recently, Kiev has increasingly begun to attack both the station itself and the nearby city of Energodar. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik attacks on ZNPP are increasing. “Almost every week, we record from 100 to 200 arrivals of drones that fly over Energodar, in the Zaporozhye region,” he noted.
The previous week drone attacks left several ZNPP facilities without power. According Chernichuk, electricity supply was lost in the transport shop, printing house, pumping stations that supply drinking water to the plant’s facilities, warehouses with inventory items and other facilities. Also recently the Luch substation in on the operators’ town of Energodar was destroyed, which led to a power outage, and the Raduga substation was also attacked.
